Wizz Air has now carried over 500 million passengers. This milestone was achieved earlier this week, and it is based on combining all passengers transported since its first commercial flight from Katowice to London Luton in May 2004. That route is still served today.

Given this half-a-billion traffic figure and the ultra-low-cost carrier’s many changes, including to its network and the elimination of its Abu Dhabi unit, it’s a good time to explore its longest routes. Not least because it is one of the few airlines to fly the Airbus A321XLR, although its plans for that variant have changed markedly.

Wizz Air’s Ten Longest Flights

Credit: GCMap

The routes, shown above and below, are based on using the Wizz Air Group’s schedule submission to Cirium Diio, with all flights planned in the first half of the year (January-June) examined. As usual, the order is based on the maximum block time, which is measured as chocks-off-to-chocks-on. It is what is shown in the airline’s booking engine, on other websites, in schedules, etc.

Timed at up to 6h 55m, Wizz Air’s longest route is from Jeddah back to London Gatwick. It is longer than fellow ultra-low-cost-carrier Ryanair’s longest service. It is underpinned by funding from the Saudi Air Connectivity Program. Many of Saudi Arabia’s new routes are supported in this way, including Delta’s inaugural service to the country later this year.

Inside Wizz Air’s Longest Route

Credit: Gatwick Airport

The budget operator has operated between Gatwick, the UK’s second-busiest airport, and Jeddah since April 2025. At 2,546 nautical miles (4,715 km) each way, it is Wizz Air’s longest link by great circle distance as well as time. It is, unsurprisingly, the carrier’s longest route to date.

Gatwick’s slot situation is notably better than Heathrow’s, hence a multitude of new carriers. However, it is still heavily slot-constrained. One manifestation of this is a highly changeable schedule. Let’s look at its plan for January 19-25. That week, Jeddah-bound flights will depart at 9:15 am (Tuesdays), 4:50 pm (Fridays), and 5:00 pm (the other days). They’ll arrive at 6:50 pm and 2:35 am+1 local time.

The schedule is worse on the way back, although that is, of course, highly subjective. Flights will depart from Jeddah at 3:30 am (Tuesdays, Saturdays, Sundays), 3:45 am (Mondays, Fridays), 4:00 am (Thursdays), and 8:20 pm (Tuesdays). They’ll get back to the UK at either 7:25 am or 7:40 am and, in the case of the mid-evening departure, at 12:15 am+1 local time.

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What: Kutaisi To Madrid?!

Credit: Shutterstock

You’d be forgiven for not hearing of Kutaisi before. It is the fourth most populous city in Georgia, where Wizz Air bases aircraft and crew due to the country’s open skies with the EU. It does not really serve Kutaisi for its own sake. It does so as an extreme, low-cost alternative to the capital, Tbilisi. It is estimated that seven in ten passengers make the four-hour trip overland to/from the capital.

Wizz Air plans 25 routes from Kutaisi in the first half of this year, with an average of ten daily departures. It’ll be the airline’s 28th most-served airport out of 176 in its network. Its routes include Madrid, which began in June 2023. It was the first time the Spanish capital had Georgia flights before, at least in the past 20 years.

In the past year, booking data shows that Madrid-Georgia had approximately 47,000 round-trip passengers, with over half of the market traveling to/from Kutaisi. The rest of the passengers flew to/from Tbilisi. Given the relative lack of choice, most people connected to another flight in Istanbul with either Turkish Airlines or Pegasus.